Francis Bacon Mystery

Francis Bacon is charged with investigating the murder of a fellow barrister at Gray's Inn. He recruits his unwanted protégé Thomas Clarady to do the tiresome legwork. The son of a privateer, Clarady will do anything to climb the Elizabethan social ladder. Bacon's powerful uncle Lord Burghley suspects Catholic conspirators of the crime, but other motives quickly emerge. Rival barristers contend for the murdered man's legal honors and wealthy clients. Highly-placed courtiers are implicated as the investigation reaches from Whitehall to the London streets. Bacon does the thinking; Clarady does the fencing. Everyone has something up his pinked and padded sleeve. Even the brilliant Francis Bacon is at a loss - and in danger - until he sees through the disguises of the season of Misrule.

Thomas Clarady risks his life, his eternal soul - and his chastity! Tom is recruited to spy on a group of radical Puritans at Cambridge University with Francis Bacon as his spymaster -- his tutor in tradecraft and politics. Their commission gets off to a deadly start when Tom finds his chief informant hanging from the roof beams. Now he has to catch a murderer as well as a seditioner. His first suspect is the volatile poet Christopher Marlowe, who keeps turning up in the middle of Tom's investigations. Dogged by unreliable assistants, chased by lusty women, and harangued daily by the exacting Bacon, Tom risks his heart and soul to stop the villains and win his reward.

London, 1588. Someone's turning Catholics into widows... ... and masking the crimes under cover of Armada fever. Francis Bacon is charged with identifying the murderer by the Andromache Society, a widows' guild led by his formidable aunt. Thomas Clarady and Lady Alice Trumpington help investigate while struggling to keep themselves out of hot water. Bacon must free his friends from the Tower, track an exotic poison, and untangle several crimes to determine if the motive is patriotism, greed, lunacy - or a mix of all three.

It's 1589 and England is embroiled in a furious pamphlet war between an impudent Puritan calling himself Martin Marprelate and London's wittiest writers. The archbishop wants Martin to hang. The Privy Council wants the tumult to end. But nobody knows who Martin is or where he's hiding his illegal press. Then two writers are strangled, mistaken for Thomas Nashe, the pamphleteer who is hot on Martin's trail. Francis Bacon is tasked with stopping the murders - and catching Martin, while he's about it. But the more he learns, the more he fears Martin may be someone dangerously close to home. Can Bacon and his band of intelligencers stop the strangler before another writer dies, without stepping on Martin's possibly very important toes?

It's Midsummer at Richmond Palace and love is in the air -- along with the usual political courtships and covert alliances. Secret trysts, daring dalliances, and a pair of famous French hounds keep Francis Bacon and his gallant team busy while trying to catch one devilishly daring murderer.

Anthony Bacon returns after thirteen years in France to live in his brother's house at Gray's Inn. Though seldom strong enough to leave his rooms, his gouty legs never hinder his agile mind. He's built the most valuable intelligence service in Europe. Now the Bacon brothers are ready to offer it to the patron with the deepest pockets. Then Francis finds a body lying near Anthony's coach. The clues inside point to Anthony's secretary. Worse, the murdered man had been spreading rumors that could destroy Anthony's reputation. Francis thinks his brother did it. Assistant Thomas Clarady thinks the secretary did it. As they investigate, they hear one story after another about what happened. Which is the truth? Can they sort through the lies before disaster strikes?

Three award-winning historical mysteries in one convenient package! Francis Bacon reluctantly puts down his books to solve crimes in Elizabethan London, aided by Thomas Clarady, a privateer's son who will do anything to climb into the gentry, or up to a lady's bedchamber. In Murder by Misrule, Francis Bacon must catch a killer to regain Queen Elizabeth's favor. He recruits handsome Thomas Clarady to chase witnesses from Whitehall to the London streets, where everyone has something up his pinked and padded sleeve. Then in Death by Disputation, Bacon sends Clarady to Cambridge to spy on radical Puritans. When Tom finds his tutor hanging from the rafters, his first suspect is the volatile poet, Christopher Marlowe. Chased by three lusty women and spurred by the exacting Bacon, Tom risks his very soul to catch the criminals. It's August, 1588, in The Widows Guild. The Spanish fleet has been chased away, but now someone is turning Catholics into widows, masking the crimes under armada fever. Francis Bacon is charged with the investigation by a widows' guild led by his formidable aunt. He must untangle multiple crimes driven by patriotism, greed, lunacy, or all three.